But if the treatments have roughly similar benefits, they have very different prices. Watchful waiting costs just a few thousand dollars, in follow-up doctor visits and tests. Surgery to remove the prostate gland costs about $23,000. A targeted form of radiation, known as I.M.R.T., runs $50,000. Proton radiation therapy often exceeds $100,000.
And in our current fee-for-service medical system — in which doctors and hospitals are paid for how much care they provide, rather than how well they care for their patients — you can probably guess which treatments are becoming more popular: the ones that cost a lot of money.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Health Care Reform: The Prostate Cancer Test
Mr. Leonhardt at the NYT has this pitch perfect.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
When I worked at a large urban medical center there was some conflict between the family practice MDs and the urologists about offering the PSA for prostate cancer screening. The urologists felt it was important, i.e. a great way to generate surgical business. The family practice MDs felt that the treatment was often worse - the guys could probably live the rest of their lives without the cancer hurting them, it's such a slow growing cancer that the men are likely to die from something else before the cancer kills them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's kind of what the whole article is about, as well as the recent New Yorker piece on the contrast between two Texas towns, costs and practices.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who recently got invited to see the recently completed inside of a specialists new home on Hood Canal.
She can't stop talking about the whole medical profession as if they're all out to pick her pocket. Which they are, but not all I think.
Nevertheless, it's what Obama is talking about when he says docs should be paid for quality, not quantity.